


Leave the Path

by Quakey (Quak3y)



Series: Deadpool 2 aftermath fic [1]
Category: Cable and Deadpool, Deadpool (Movieverse)
Genre: Angst, Feels, Gen, Guilt, M/M, Spoilers, exploring canon through fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 16:39:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14752491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quak3y/pseuds/Quakey
Summary: My explanation of why Cable used his last time charge.(The reader can look at it as gen bromance or pre-slash, up to you.)





	Leave the Path

**Author's Note:**

> (I think) I saw a couple tiny, important things while watching Deadpool 2 the second time. A few very slight, pained twitches in Cable’s expression at _very_ key moments (when Deadpool levels an accusation and when Cable fires a bullet). They solidified instant headcanon as to why Cable was willing to sacrifice his ride back to the future just to help Wade. Plus I was trying to think about how things got from scene X to scene Y, since the movie jumps around a bit w/o explanation. The result is fanfic. :)
> 
> You may notice slight edits when I go see it a third time--can you say obsession?--and get the quotes exactly correct. ------- EDIT TO ADD: fixed that quote. :)
> 
> I apologize for Wade's and Cable's language. :P

“What kind of spineless shitstick wants to kill a 14 year-old kid?”

That’s the question Wade Wilson asks him, and it _hurts_. It’s the same one his conscience asks him frequently. He’s stopped listening.

Instead he tells himself that he kills lots of people all the time. Up to now they’ve been adults, but murderous intent is murderous intent. Once an abusive, torturing bastard, always so, whether it’s past or future. What is will be. What was is now. What is now has a source and an ending.

He has to kill the kid. The _murderer_. To save his own.

Wilson doesn’t look much like a conscience. He doesn’t act like one. He’s an idiot, but admittedly an idiot that almost manages to fight him to a standstill and blows them both clean out of the Ice Box. So he might. _MIGHT._ Have just a little bit of respect for him.

~~~

It is easy enough to track him down back in the city. His name had been listed with the murderer’s on the cell assignment: Wade Wilson. From there, it’s connections. Where he was apprehended before the Ice Box, and as who. Deadpool, a strange name. Wade Wilson and Deadpool are synonymous from there and it’s easy enough to track him down to a particular area, find his haunts at the so-called Sister Margaret’s School for Wayward Girls.

Easy enough to bump shoulders with some of the patrons as they’re entering or leaving. _Hey, have you see Wilson?_

And that’s how he learns more about Wade Wilson. Deadpool.

“Yeah, he’s probably inside, drowning his sorrows.” “Sorrows?” “Yeah. There was some job he fucked up. The guys tracked him home, put a bullet through his girlfriend.”

“Wade? No clue. He was pretty fucked up last time I saw him.”

“No idea, man. That guy’s not stable since his wife or whatever she was got capped.”

He hadn’t expected them to have something in common.

~~~

At the Essex Home, Wade still won’t kill the kid. Stubbornly believes he can change him. Won’t give up, even when it’s obvious Fire Fist’s a lost cause, putting one foot after another on the path to his future.

He pulls the trigger, and he hates himself while he does it. He wants to think of Hope while he does it, why it’s necessary, but his mind shies from the horror of saving one child by killing another.

He pulls the trigger, and he can barely force himself to keep his eyes open, but he’s a soldier, damn it, and he’s going to watch his shot land.

He pulls the trigger, except Wade throws himself in front of the bullet and that’s where the shot lands instead. Blood’s a streamer behind him, blood’s a stain on his chest. Wade’s dying at their feet and the kid is alive. The kid is alive and _it worked_. It ripples through time and there’s soft fluff under his fingers instead of stiff char.

He pulled the trigger, and the family he loves is _alive_ somewhen in the future because this douchebag wannabe hero … is a better man than he is. Because Wade prevented him from killing a kid. An abused, hurting, confused 14 year-old _kid_. Because Wade was willing to stand up for those who are still innocent, who have yet to become guilty.

Innocent until proven guilty.

Innocent until they move through time to guilt. Destiny be damned. The kid has a choice.

He had a choice.

 _He’s_ the guilty one.

It’s not even a question, whether he’s going to fix this. While Wade is milking his death throes for all they’re worth, he has time to think, run through scenarios, find the perfect when. Just a little bit. Just a few minutes. For whens so close in the timestream it’s possible to pinpoint almost to the second when you’ll merge back in. He dials it in, sends himself back.

~~~

At the Essex Home, he gets out of the crappy taxi again. Wade asks about Hope’s bear and this time he doesn’t lash out. Reaches out instead. He has no idea what “swiped right” means, but Wade sounds utterly pleased with himself and doesn’t notice the coin. Good. The more he sticks to the previous steps through time, the fewer possible changes he’ll introduce, the more likely it is to play out exactly like last time … until the very end.

He aims just the same as before at the kid and pulls the trigger, and he watches like his entire life depends on it. It probably does. His family’s does. Wade’s does.

He pulls the trigger, and Wade throws himself in front of the bullet and that’s where the shot lands instead. But this time there’s no blood in the air, no blood on his chest.

It works. Wade’s alive at their feet. Hope’s alive (he wraps fingers into soft fleece and squeezes, knows _his daughter_ is alive). And he didn’t kill a kid.

_He didn’t kill a kid._

No, he really _didn’t_ do it for Wade Wilson, no matter how much the man’s ego insists he did.

He didn’t do it for a stupid, inane fucker who can’t shut up or stop joking.

Except … Wade’s not actually stupid. It only took him seconds to figure it out--the coin, the expended time charge, the _consequences_ for when in the timestream he is now fixed.

Although Wade’s still a fucking annoying asshole who has the audacity to _rub dicks_ without permission.

He really _didn’t_ do it for Wade Wilson.

…

Well…….maybe just a _little_.

**Author's Note:**

> I broke myself more than a little while writing this.
> 
> Mood: _Celine Dion - Ashes_
> 
> I'm calling out the following posts on Tumblr for being wonderful and in part leading to this fic:
> 
> <http://hawke-n-roll.tumblr.com/post/174135564180/so-i-just-went-and-saw-deadpool-2-again-and-i>
> 
> <http://withoutaconscienceorafilter.tumblr.com/post/174154793828/fuckyesnathansummers-zyxthstuff>  
> (I hate Tumblr's navigation. That's not my post but I can only get it to show up via my own tumblr. Grr.)
> 
> I don't have a beta, so if you see an error I'd really appreciate it being pointed out.
> 
> Thank you for reading! Comments and kudos feed the author!


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